Angel Peña to challenge disqualification from congressional race

LAS CRUCES - Campaign officials for Angel Peña, Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress in CD2, have taken action opposing the New Mexico Secretary of State’s decision to disqualify his candidacy.

New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver's office issued a statement Feb. 12 disqualifying Peña "because a number of his submitted petition pages failed to meet the requirements set forth in state statute. As a result, Mr. Peña did not meet the minimum number of signatures required for qualification."

A spokesman for the office said eight pages of petitions had alterations or errors, meaning they could not be counted. That left Peña below the 623 valid signatures needed to enter the primary.

Peña’s team has reviewed the state’s grounds for disqualification, looked at copies of nominating petition forms submitted and has consulted with several attorneys and election law experts, according to a news release from his campaign.

The campaign retained legal counsel, and, unable to negotiate a reversal of the decision, is prepared to file a formal petition in district court, according to the release.

"I have the upmost respect for the secretary of state's careful attention to detail in running this and other elections across the state," Peña said. "But our case involves a technicality inherent with many Hispanic names, including county names, and how they sometimes print out on forms. We feel it necessary to pursue this issue not just for the sake of our own campaign, but to more broadly eliminate any barriers to access to ballots for any future candidates whose actual names or county names contain characters that can affect nominating petition forms, when printed."

Peña's campaign said it hopes the matter can be resolved swiftly so he can continue with constituent meetings throughout southern New Mexico.

“To all our supporters, thank you for the many calls and the deep concern for our campaign," the release stated. "We promise to keep you updated on this matter and on the state of this race.”